Carolyne Burns: Expr3ss!

byLJ Charleston

Carolyne Burns co-founded Expr3ss! when she realised the HR sector needed disrupting. She knew traditional recruitment methods are time consuming, subjective and create a dilemma.

A recent Google study of 10,000 hires also showed zero benefit from reading CVs and the same study showed zero benefit from interviews too. Her Expr3ss! software and unique method cuts the wastage by eliminating the need to see hundreds of CVs and arrange inappropriate, time-consuming, in-person interviews.

Carolyne told SheHacksNews Expr3ss! is the only product that automates selection, which is actually the hard part.

The Expr3ss! software acts like a funnel that captures all you need to know about a candidate for a job. Then it uses unique predictive algorithms early in the application process – rather than at the end – to help pinpoint those candidates that are likely to be successful in a role based on benchmarked company employees.

They’ve now partnered with other established technologies such as HROnboard and Xref.

“So far Expr3ss! is being used across a very broad cross-section of sectors from hospitality, retail and supermarket chains, to banks and finance, aged and healthcare services, real estate, and trades, with employee numbers ranging from 22,000 to just 30,” Carolyne said.

Based in Sydney, Expr3ss! is saving the Australian Economy $1.3 billion every year through cuts to staff turnover, advertising costs and productivity improvements.

Yet Carolyne encountered several obstacles in the start-up process.

“I saw the benefit of the software for growing businesses and I believed in the superior efficacy of the Expr3ss! checklist algorithms for staff selection, so I approached recruitment firms. But it was clearly too disruptive to their processes and model of fees – I got shown the door! I was a woman in my late-forties starting a business in IT with web-based software that used predictive algorithms for staff selection. To find a bank or investor willing to back me, I knew it would be difficult,” Carolyne said.

“I sold everything I owned and had worked for to do this as my belief in the efficacy of the technology was so strong.”

What advice can you give to women starting out in tech businesses?

Remember that great does not equal BIG, keep it simple!

Build your business and brand on customers having a good time and getting great value.

Treat employees like volunteers and like your customers. Pay your employees well and treat them well, you can’t create a business on your own, it takes a team the help you make a good solid business.

With a sense of urgency, yet managing for long-term value, building ever-greater competitive strengths focusing on your core competency with the aim to grow and dominate your segment.

Act decisively on all matters within your core competency.

Key to cash flow is being ruthless with your debtor management.

Reputation is everything!

You cannot exist without customers. Your core purpose is to help your customers. Ensure your team have metabolised that customer service reputation is everything, even for an IT business.

At Expr3ss! we are committed to putting the ‘soft’ back into ‘software.’

Gandhi has a quote, which we have at the entrance to our office – a customer is most important and our business is dependent on them, customers are not an interruption but the purpose of our work, not outsiders but a part of our business. Customers do you a favour by giving you an opportunity to serve them.